THIS week, political watchers paid keen attention as the senator representing Ogun East in the National Assembly, Gbenga Daniel, purchased nomination forms at the national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja. Said the senator: “Today, I picked up my nomination and expression of interest forms as I seek to return to the Nigerian Senate, continuing my efforts to provide effective and responsive representation for the people of Ogun East Senatorial District under the platform of the APC ahead of the 2027 general elections.”
Ostensibly, that was because, only a few days earlier, party leaders and key stakeholders in Ogun East Senatorial District, the district that Daniel currently represents in the Red Chamber, had openly and enthusiastically endorsed the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, for the same position, and the ruling party’s law allows state chapters to adopt such a consensus arrangement if they so wish. Already, that arrangement has produced the APC governorship candidate for the 2027 election in the state.
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The 2027 Ogun East senatorial race promises to provide political drama, in large part because the two contenders are former friends turned foes. When Mr Daniel had the privilege of becoming the Governor of Ogun State between 2003 and 2011, it was Abiodun that he had faced in a keenly contested primary. At the time, Mr Daniel was moving from the then ruling party in the state, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to battle it out with Mr Abiodun in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of which Mr Abiodun was a founding member in the state.
Although Mr Abiodun was one of the leading figures in the PDP at the time, certain forces within the party favoured Mr Daniel, and he went on to win the primary. And immediately Mr Daniel won, Mr Abiodun reportedly collapsed his structures into the former’s campaign team, donated his offices, and provided substantial financial resources for the election. In the eight years that Mr Daniel held sway, Mr Abiodun reportedly never approached the government to ask for any support.
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Mr Daniel’s reign in Ogun State was however, allegedly not stellar. Among other drawbacks, it was allegedly characterised by in-fighting between the executive and the legislature, and pockets of assassinations within the state. During the violent political climate of the time, some prominent politicians were allegedly persecuted or maimed.
For a long time, the state House of Assembly could not sit, and even indecent photographs of lawmakers allegedly taking oaths were published in newspapers. Given the crisis that engulfed Ogun State at the time, it seemed inevitable that Mr Daniel would not anoint a successor. Due to the factionalization of his party, the PDP, Mr Daniel floated another party, the PPN and sponsored a candidate, but it was Ibikunle Amosun, an opposition candidate, who won the race to the Oke Mosan Government House.
When his successor came on board, Mr Daniel became a guest of the anti-graft institutions. Speaking with one of the former governors in the South-West region during this ordeal, Mr Daniel was reported as saying that one of the greatest undoings was the fact that he could not produce a successor. During Mr Amosun’s eight years that many political analysts in the state described as the years of a warlord, Mr Daniel found it almost impossible to visit the state. The machinery of governance was ruthlessly deployed against him, as he himself testified at his 70th birthday celebrations in Sagamu on 6 April when he looked at Mr Amosun, smiled broadly and said: “He gave me hell!”
As Mr Daniel moved about defending himself at the anti-graft offices, many felt that he was being unduly molested by his successor, who ensured that he could not access even his sprawling Abeokuta hotel, which the Amosun administration insisted was built on fraudulently acquired government land.
During the 2019 general election, Mr Daniel received some political revival as he was appointed Director General of the Atiku Abubakar presidential campaign organisation under PDP. But he began to sing a different tune immediately Atiku lost the election. The leadership of the APC got in touch with him and declared that for him to remain relevant in the next dispensation , he had to align himself with the ruling party, the APC. That was how he came to join the APC about three days to Mr Abiodun’s governorship election, which the latter (APC) won.
During the 2019 governorship election, Mr Abiodun did not perform well in Mr Daniel’s territory. At the time, the House of Assembly ticket was won by the APM, the party being sponsored by former Governor Ibikunle Amosun. According to political watchers, Mr Abiodun never bothered about this development, and actually even made excuses for his long-term friend. He would in fact go on to fulfill all the promises he made to Mr Daniel: getting his hotel and other property back, free access to the state, and the payment of all his withheld allowances as a former governor.
And shortly after Mr Daniel was stabilised, Governor Abiodun reportedly incorporated some of his (Daniel’s) lieutenants into his government, forming an inclusive government for unity and peace in the state. Suddenly, Daniel, a politically dead commodity in the Amosun years, bounced back into political reckoning.
But there was more to come. The then Senator representing Ogun East, Lekan Mustapha, was one of the leading contenders for the senatorial race, but Governor Abiodun and the late Awujale of Ijebuland pleaded with them to step down for Mr Daniel, arguing that a former governor of the state should not be disgraced. Mr Daniel got the ticket. His political revival was complete. But this was where the crisis between the duo set in. No sooner had Mr Daniel got the ticket than he allegedly started working against the government.
Said a party chieftain: “Because of his deceitful and evil intentions, thinking that Dapo may likely run for the Senate after his eight-year term, he decided to send Dapo into political oblivion. That was how he surreptitiously aligned with Adebutu, the PDP governorship candidate, in 2023. He used APC money to work against APC in the governorship election that brought Dapo in for a second term. He did everything humanly possible to defeat Dapo. He called his supporters a few days to the election, after Dapo had delivered the senatorial election for him, and said that they should vote for Adebutu. Funds were channeled to him through Adebutu’s companies.
“And even after Abiodun won, Daniel allegedly called a serving governor in the North-West to use the instrumentality of the Chairman of the Election Petition Tribunal, a citizen of his state, to cause him (Abiodun) to lose at the tribunal. The governor in question then called Abiodun, saying: “I don’t know your people are this wicked. See what your senator did.
“Abiodun still did not flinch. He won. And again he did so on an appeal, and at the Supreme Court. Within that period, Daniel launched a smear campaign on the Ogun Governor regarding his certificates, suborning a retinue of social media influencers to discredit him. This development angered stakeholders within Ogun East, who then resolved to ask Abiodun to throw his hat into the Ogun East 2027 race.
He added: “Dapo Abiodun’s administration has been full of ups and downs, but what is sacrosanct is the fact that people can see the hand of God in his emergence. In the last seven years, there has been relative peace in Ogun State. There has been political peace. There has been no incident of political assassination, or crisis. The ugly spectre of governors’ boy moving from one place to another, destroying people’s property, laying siege on political opponents are now a thing of the past.
“Ogun State has witnessed tremendous economic transformation: Abiodun has moved the state from about 3trillion GDP to N17 trillion GDP, attracting so many investors to Ogun State. Ogun State is arguably the investors destination of choice in Nigeria. Abiodun has replicated development across the local governments and ensured inclusive governance. No arrogance, no political harassment, no intimidation.”
Mr Daniel, then, faces the prospect of karma, as he confronts his beneficiary in the Ogun East 2027 race. Many have accused him of smearing the governor in the media space, calling media editors and giving them false information to assassinate his character.
Mr Daniel was in fact said to have been invited to the meeting where Governor Abiodun’s consensus candidacy was announced, but he reportedly came to the venue with three fully loaded coaster buses. This, party leaders were said to have rebuffed, insisting that only Mr Daniel could enter the meeting hall, which was strictly for delegates. Party insiders said Mr Daniel immediately began addressing his prearranged media people on video, condemning the action.
According to an APC source, “All major stakeholders, from ward to local government, to state, were there. But as usual, he’s always seen himself above party leadership. That’s why, even within the last three years, he has not integrated his supporters into the APC structure in the state. He has never had a relationship with them; he has only carried on with his Gateway foundation.”
It is expected that before the end of next month, the people of Ogun East will speak loudly about who they believe will give them quality representation between Mr Daniel and Governor Abiodun.
